The shattered remnants and survivors of the days of old, left with a world different
from the one known before and with Magic a much weakned thing, were reduced to primitive
arts in many parts of the world as people relearned skills long mastered and taken
for granted in previous times.

Men learned the art of the Sword once again, and pockets of survivors formed new
tribes and clans. Chieftans and would-be rulers carved out feifs for themselves
and soon battles were fought again, but on a much smaller scale than in the previous
Age. Rather than armies of millions weilding dread weapons powered by dark Magics,
forces of as few as a dozen warriors made war with bronze and iron weapons.

The remnants of mankind and many other races also largely turned against Magic and
those who wielded it, fear of another collapse turning into a general superstition
as time passed. Few Magic Users survived in those days, and even those with the
limited Magic of the Old Blood, the Aeldenari, were persecuted in many areas though
they had nothing to do with the excesses of the previous Age.

This antagonism towards Magic Users eventually forced many practitioners of Magic
to bond together in secret societies, in remote areas, or in the few lands where
they were not persecuted. As time passed some of these groups became powerful in
their own right, amassing sufficient Magical talent and knowledge to become a force
unto themselves.

In the south on what is now the continent of Ullushorvas (following the submersion
of the Gorsage Land Bridge later in history during the Cataclysm) a Riftmagus named
Zha'ir living in the shattered remnants of one of the great Empires of the previous
Age, Aranashi, discovered and mastered new techniques to bring a kind of extra-dimensional
being the Riftmagi had used heavily in the past through the Great Caul for short
periods of time.

Zha'ir used this knowledge for his own personal gain, but after his death four of
his nine apprentice-sons (the so-called Luminous Nine) banded together to conquer
much of the lands of what had been Aranashi, each ruling a large region. Today those
lands remain in the form of Ord, Sor-Zorul, Forvish, Tinsha, Corlania, and Upinthia,
but in that Age were known as the Zha'irian Union in honor of the four brother's
patronymic.

Also in the south the Ullu'shu (after whom the southern continent is named in modern
times), known to most men as the lizard people, reformed their ancient Empire across
the Vast Reach of northeastern Ullushorvas. As in modern times, Ullu'shu did not
use Magic, rather they relied on their natural talent for Psionics instead. Soon
the Ullu'shu and the Zha'irian Union made both trade and war together, alternating
from one to the other as circumstances dictated.

Sword & Sorcery Fantasy (~200 years)

In a relatively short period of time, new forms of Magic sprang up; some faltered
or proved untennable, but the strongest drove the rise of the mightiest Empires.
New Magic Items were crafted such as had not been seen since the Caul was created,
and bizarre cults sprang up around some practitioners of Arcane Arts. Magic Users
of all manner carved out fiefs for themselves, erecting towers and fortresses in
odd places to gaurd against attacks by superstitious warriors, and generally exerting
their power.

In the north, on what would become the continent of Danoshorvas, a Magic User named
Undah (oohn-Dah) discovered an ability to absorb energy directly from the deaths
of living creatures,and use that energy to work magic. Taking on apprentices he
soon created a cult of student practitioners of this form of Magic he had developed,
and superstitious cultists who worshipped him as a living godling that obligingly
captured hapless victims to be sacrificied to feed the death Magic of the Thanomancers.

To the north and west, two different groups ranging the wide expanse of land across
the top and west of the continent, known as the Broaden Stretch, developed similar
traditions of a Magic known in modern times as Spellweaving and Magecrafting. The
Spellweavers were generally accepted among the northmen and various Orders were
founded with a regional basis.

Practitioners of Magecraft were feared and persecuted however and were forced to
bond together for mutual protection. They eventually used their powers offensively
and soon became a force to be reckoned with, particularly when they allied with
sects practicing two other forms of Magic called Spellbinding and Stregari.

To the far east a loose union of nature-worshipping tribesmen calling themselves
the Machtig-Baelvolkerung gave birth to a powerful tradition of Druidic Magic, and
further east still a remnant of the old times, worshippers of dark powers from beyond
the Caul, gave rise to an aggressively expansionistic Empire called the Morgathi
Imperium, ruled by Necromancers and served by the Undying.

As these groups came to power and began to expand their borders, the Age of Rebirth
slowly came to an end.